came between him and it, as to meet opposition with profound
indifference,--the only appreciable result was a greater attraction
for the solitude that protected him, and he grew even to love the
bleak shore and barren sands that had proved so inhospitable to
others. There was a new meaning to the roar of the surges, an
honest, loyal sturdiness in the unchanging persistency of the
uncouth and blustering trade-winds, and a mute fidelity in the
shining sands, treacherous to all but him. With such bandogs to
lie in wait for trespassers, should he not be grateful?

If no bitterness was awakened by the repeated avowal of the
unfaithfulness of the woman he loved, it was because he had always
made the observation and experience of others give way to the
dominance of his own insight. No array of contradictory facts ever
shook his belief or unbelief; like all egotists, he accepted them
as truths controlled by a larger truth of which he alone was
cognizant. His simplicity, which was but another form of his
egotism, was so complete as to baffle ordinary malicious cunning,
and so he was spared the experience and knowledge that come to a
lower nature, and help debase it.

Exercise and the stimulus of the few wants that sent him hunting or
fishing kept up his physical health. Never a lover of rude freedom
or outdoor life his sedentary predilections and nice tastes kept
him from lapsing into barbarian excess; never a sportsman he
followed the chase with no feverish exaltation. Even dumb
creatures found out his secret, and at times, stalking moodily over
the upland, the brown deer and elk would cross his path without
fear or molestation, or, idly lounging in his canoe within the
river bar, flocks of wild fowl would settle within stroke of his